EAST PALESTINE Workers continue recount with door-to-door effort

City officials want to report the results to the secretary of state as soon as possible.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
EAST PALESTINE -- Out to prove there are at least 5,000 people in East Palestine, city officials are optimistic about the census and their chances of keeping city status.
Mayor Raymond Hull, Councilwoman Barbara Lynch, city service director Rich Pillsbury and park board members Gene Hoffman and Sandy Wales will go door-to-door beginning tonight in an attempt to contact unaccounted-for residents.
City officials had counted 3,914 residents as of Tuesday -- results tallied from census forms that were returned and phone calls to residents by city officials and volunteers.
Pillsbury was preparing city maps and lists of streets Tuesday so the door-to-door crew can keep track of households.
"This whole effort is very well organized," Pillsbury said. "It has been very positive. Every day we hear of places we've missed."
Deadline: Law director Bradley Allison said city officials began the census count Monday and have until April 18 to complete it.
"The people are out there," Allison said. "We would not have devoted hundreds of hours to this, we would not have attempted it, if we didn't believe we could find 5,000 people."
The city must report the results to the Ohio secretary of state's office, which will issue proclamations of village or city status based on the U.S. Census figures.
City officials weren't happy to learn that East Palestine came up some 70 people short of maintaining its status as a city, and they are convinced they were undercounted.
Allison said city officials used the five days allowed by law between council's action ordering the census and the start of the count to gather information and distribute census forms.
"This is an enormous task to pull off in such a short time, but we are very optimistic," he said.